R-71 update: Signature count tops 100,000

The Referendum 71 signature verification process has reached a milestone: Signature checkers have surpassed the 100,000 signature mark . The cumulative total is now nearly 104,000 checked signatures and just over 12,000 rejected for one reason or another. The overall error rate is 11.72 percent, barely up from 11.68 percent, which we reported Friday. In order to make the November statewide ballot, the referendum’s overall rejection rate must not go over 12.4 percent. Here are the latest totals: 103,898 checked, with 91,716 accepted and 12,182 rejected. The R-71 sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures for the measure to be placed on the ballot. A closer look at the rejections reveals: 9,959 people whose registration were not found, 1,010 whose petition signature did not match the one on file, 1,172 duplicates and 41 cases where checkers have asked the voter’s home county for an electronic signature that can be compared with the signature on the petition. As was the case last Friday, some results of the “third check” are in the updated numbers. Since the third check began, 220 volumes have been checked and 561 names have been converted from the “not found” category to the “accepted” list. The checkers are continuing their pace of 50 volumes per day. The third check process was started as a way to review the names of petition signers whose names did not appear on the snapshot of the voter registration database that checkers had been using from the start of the checking process. The live version of this database is being used to check those names in question. The R-71 sponsors are trying to overturn the recently adopted “everything but marriage” law (SB 5688) that expands state rights and responsibilities to state-registered domestic partners so that they equal those granted to married couples. As a side note, we love hearing feedback and questions from all of you regarding this process. In fact, we're getting so many questions each day that we just aren’t able to respond to every single question individually and right away like we were doing in the beginning. That doesn't mean we will stop answering your questions; instead of answering them in the comments, though, we'll try to address questions you’ve raised in upcoming blog posts so that everyone can find the answers. Also, a note from our blog moderator Christina:

"As a friendly reminder, again (again), you can send us the same comment over and over and over again but if it A) has a string of four-letter words in it, B) makes fun of someone, C) uses generally offensive terms, D) endorses the measure, etc, etc, then it won’t get approved. Sorry…"